Bid to control online gaming

[rickfarang]

Bid to control online gaming

 

The government will regulate internet cafes and shops offering online games nationwide with a ministerial regulation to require registration of their operations and to limit game-playing by youngsters aged less than 18 to three hours a day.

 

Government spokesman Surapong Suebwonglee said the Interior Ministry will issue a regulation to control online computer games offered by shops and internet cafes across the country.

 

The proposed regulation will require importers or producers of online computer games to register with the authorities who will check game content for harmful graphic violence.

 

The regulation also includes a limit on game-playing for youngsters aged below 18 to a maximum of three hours a day. Youngsters will not be allowed to enter internet cafes before 2pm on weekdays and they must leave before 10pm.

 

A recent survey found there were around 5,000 unregistered internet cafes and gaming shops across the country.

 

After the regulation is issued, those operations must register with the authorities within 30 days, said the government spokesman.

 

Shops in Bangkok are required to register with the Culture Ministry while those in the provinces can register with provincial or district authorities.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"to limit game-playing by youngsters aged less than 18 to three hours a day."

 

And how exactly do they think to enforce this? With so many internet cafes around even if the owner would kick them out after 3hrs (which I think is unlikely), the kids just move to the next one down the street for another 3 hrs.

 

Sanuk!

[Flashermac]

When the videos arcades opened here in the mid '80s, there were all sorts of problems. Kids would actually steal to get money to spend in the arcades. It became almost an addiction. The Thai papers carried reports of missing children who had empty their parents' wallets and stayed away from home for days or weeks until they had spent all of the money. The government finally banned the video arcades and shut them all down.

 

But as you say, the internet cafes are everywhere. They have thinned down a bit though and I only know off three with 100 meters of my apartment. A few years ago, there were about eight!